The disputed episode
The rescue of a rare black woodpecker in the Brescia area has prompted the WWF to further its traditional anti-hunting crusade. Unfortunately, the animal died from its injuries, and the environmental association has already identified those responsible: "This incident is not an isolated one. In these first weeks of the hunting season, the WWF hunting center has already welcomed numerous protected animals injured by gunshots, as well as birds seized by authorities for illegal possession. This situation occurs every year, particularly in the provinces of Brescia and Bergamo, where poaching is reaching alarming proportions.".
The faults of politics
The WWF also took it out on politics: “The responsibility of regional politics is clear and can no longer be ignored. The Lombardy Regional Council and Government neglect to administer a region with one of the highest concentrations of poaching in the country, and continue to approve measures requested—if not imposed—by the most extreme fringe of the hunting world, which dictates the law in the region.".
Close correlation
Then the main thrust against hunting: “Often, the hunting community simply reiterates that hunting and poaching are two different things, thus washing their hands of the issue and completely ignoring the problem. But the data, especially in Lombardy, demonstrate a close correlation between legal hunting practices and illegal phenomena. This attitude of disinterest, shared by much of the political spectrum and hunting associations, rather than isolating and repressing those who persist in these deplorable behaviors with action, fuels a sense of impunity among those who continue to shoot at anything that moves, to line the valleys with nets and traps, and to traffic live and dead animals for illicit profits.".
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